The Biden administration on Sept. 6 canceled the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) that were issued during the Trump administration.
The leases canceled by the Department of the Interior cover 365,000 acres in ANWR and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A).
The NPR-A, a 23 million-acre area on the state’s North Slope, is the largest undisturbed public land in the United States. The department will ban new leases on more than 40 percent of the reserve.
These actions, which the Biden administration said are aimed at safeguarding Alaska’s pristine Arctic region, are part of President Joe Biden’s broader conservation and climate agenda.
“As the climate crisis warms the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, we have a responsibility to protect this treasured region for all ages,” President Biden said in a statement.
“Canceling all remaining oil and gas leases issued under the previous administration in the Arctic Refuge and protecting more than 13 million acres in the Western Arctic will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”
The department said the decision to cancel the leases was based on a comprehensive analysis conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which highlighted several fundamental legal deficiencies.
In a statement, the department said a draft environmental impact review released on Sept. 6 by the BLM had determined that the analysis that underlined the agency’s 2021 lease sale was “seriously flawed,” giving Ms. Haaland authority to cancel the leases.
That was “based on a number of fundamental legal deficiencies, including: insufficient analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, including failure to adequately analyze a reasonable range of alternatives and properly quantify downstream greenhouse gas emissions; and failure to properly interpret the Tax Act.”
“President Biden is delivering on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history,“ Ms. Haaland said in a statement. ”The steps we are taking today further that commitment, based on the best available science and in recognition of the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) criticized the move, calling it “unlawful” and “devastating” for the state.
“This is a grave injustice to the Inupiat people of the North Slope, especially in Kaktovik—the only village in ANWR,” he continued. “As evidenced by this and so many of the admin’s actions, the idea of ‘equity’ is being exploited as a hollow political soundbite.”
Representatives of the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
The Trump administration issued seven leases to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) one day before President Biden’s inauguration. President Biden had pledged to protect the 19.6 million-acre habitat for polar bears and caribou.
Tax legislation in 2017 that was approved by Republican lawmakers initiated oil and gas leasing in the region and mandated that the Department of the Interior conduct two lease sales by December 2024.
The Biden administration announced the suspension of the leases several months after the first and only lease sale in the Arctic Refuge; AIDEA then filed a lawsuit contesting the decision. But last month, a federal judge in Alaska dismissed the group’s claims, ruling that the government’s delay in implementing the Arctic Refuge leasing program was reasonable.
Indigenous Alaskans and environmentalists welcomed the announcement.
